


As Long As You're Happy

by CFonticola



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Awkward Conversations, F/M, Flirting, Getting Together, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) Friendship, Keith (Voltron) is So Done, M/M, Multi, OT3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 10:25:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16157132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CFonticola/pseuds/CFonticola
Summary: Everything's settled down nicely on Earth, except Keith's family tree seems determined to tie itself into a pretzel.





	As Long As You're Happy

**Author's Note:**

> This is fail_fandomanon's fault once again but I can't say I regret anything.

For all that he’s had it a bit rough in life, for all the battles he’s fought and trials he’s undergone, Keith realizes doesn’t know true trauma until one morning during his first Atlas tour.

Of course as the head of Voltron he suffers the worst feedback exhaustion of the five of them, so of course he has to stay in the hospital longer, so of course he ends up taking the tour separately, along with Kolivan and Krolia. He’s okay with that at first – it even feels a little special, like he’s getting this tour as a fellow commander – but after a little while something feels off. He can’t put his finger on it. Shiro’s leading them through one incredible facility after another, leaning back on bulkheads and crossing his arms and wait is he seriously tossing his hair, just a bit, as he lists the Atlas’s capabilities and reminds them all that actually it has so many more capabilities than they even know. It’s just… off. Shiro shows off sometimes, but not like this. Not with hair-tossing. It almost makes Keith think of…

Keith’s brain shies away from completing that thought the moment he turns away from a set of controls to find that Shiro, Krolia, and Kolivan have vanished around a doorway. Their voices still murmur low in the corridor. He leans back a little, a little further, bit by bit, contorting to catch a glimpse.

Oh quiznak. The bad thought was right. It’s making him think of Lance. 

The revelation makes him freeze in horror. Shiro flashes his companions a grin that can only have come from Lance’s explicit tutoring. _Explicit._ They’re grinning back. When Shiro raises his Altean arm to gesture down the corridor, one finger flicks a strand of Kolivan’s ear fur. Shiro makes some comment about how he’s still learning control and grins again. Krolia chuckles. Kolivan smiles.

Keith decides he hasn’t been in the hospital long enough. Clearly he’s still exhausted and seeing things. _Clearly._

**

The second time the universe unfolds the true depths of its horrors to him, they’re running a round of Voltron vs Atlas drills. Keith is having a wild time. His team are more fluent and fluid than they’ve ever been, resonant with power, and Shiro is still managing to push them to their limits. The beautiful buzz of Voltron fills his head, and the whole Atlas crew breaks into applause when their opponent neatly dodges their most powerful shots volley yet, and it is all perfect until –

“Not running my son too ragged, I hope, Captain Shirogane.”

“Your son is like you, old friend. He lives for the fight.”

“Uh, Keith?” Wait, that’s not Krolia or Kolivan over the comm from the Atlas. That’s Hunk in his left ear. “Shouldn’t we be dodging shots the size of our entire body?”

Keith starts into focus. Right, he is a commander. He is being ridiculous. Kolivan and Krolia are just on the Atlas to watch the drills. Shots the size of their entire body coming any moment now…

“Keith and Voltron can take it… but we can grab an hour’s break to let my crew have a breather.” No. No this isn’t right. Shiro doesn’t just take breaks, and when he does he never sounds so cheerful about it. Like he’s looking forward to something. Something more than a break.

“Don’t leave us to dry here, Atlas,” Keith attempts, with as much good cheer as he can amass considering the apocalyptic scenarios banging down his mental doors. Over the comm comes the sound of Shiro’s laughter. God he sounds happy. Keith loves to hear him so happy. Kolivan and Krolia too. Just maybe not so much in – 

No. Right. Imagining things. Just fellow commanders taking a commander’s break. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Voltron.” Has happy Shiro always sounded like a cat swimming in a whole tub of cream? “Coran, let’s switch the configurations back and you run them through some shipside manuvering. I’m going to fix our guests some lunch.”

“Aye aye, Captain!” Coran at least sounds normal – “You three have a tasty time now!” 

Keith just barely chokes down his groan. How’s he going to go shipside manuvers when he desperately needs to punch something?

**

“They are _doing it._ ”

It’s an interesting set of responses that Lance’s declaration engenders. Hunk says “Lance please I’m eating”, Allura says “doing wha – _Lance please I’m eating_.” Pidge looks like she’s known all along and really wishes she hasn’t.  
Keith slams a fist down on the table.

“They’re not _doing_ anything, Lance! They’re comrades, they work together – ”

“I bet I can get video proof of them doing it,” says Pidge.

Hunk moans. “Eating!”

“Shiro does seem very relaxed these days,” Allura muses, one finger against her face. “As does Kolivan, come to think of it. I’m a little confused about Krolia, I admit, I thought Shiro’s preference was for men?”

Lance shrugs. “I think Galra gender registers different. I had the same thing when I saw Kolivan the first time, you know? Like, bam, sudden alien bi-curiosity. Maybe Shiro just finds all Galra – “

“Fuckable,” contributes Pidge. Keith slams a second fist down.

“Shiro is not fucking anyone!” To Pidge’s raised eyebrow he says. “How would you feel if Iverson was dating your mother and both of them were dating Matt?!”

“I would feel nothing,” Pidge deadpans, “because I would be dead.”

“And that’s exactly why Shiro and my mom and Kolivan are _only friends_. End of story.”

“Right,” says Pidge.

“Right,” says Allura.

“Friends who are doing it,” says Lance.

Keith slams his face down between his fists.

“I dunno, man,” Hunk opines after a moment, after pushing his plate far, far away to the other side of the table. “Like Allura says, it makes all of them really happy, right? Even Kolivan. I figured he could have sex but I had no idea he could _smile_. I think you should just give them your blessing. I figure if they know you know, they’re gonna be a bit more discreet when you’re around, right? They’ll understand.”

Keith wants to protest that even the leader of the Blades of Marmora would not be able to find a level of discretion high enough, but he sees the point. There’s a reason he’s got a rule in place saying always listen to Hunk when trying to be a functional person with normal relationships. He wants his mother, his mentor, his blood brother to be happy, he’s got to suck it up. Think of them first. Better than punching anything. He’s a commander, he can totally – 

“So…” Lance trails a lazy fork across the table at Pidge. “Video evidence, huh?”

**

“I can do this,” Keith tells the door of Shiro’s quarters on the Atlas. The door doesn’t seem to believe him, either.

He takes another deep breath. He knows Shiro is in there. All he has to do is walk in and give his blessing. Be a good brother. Shiro’s been understanding of much less totally normal reactions in the past. Just go in and _I’m glad you and my mom and my father figure are having what I’m sure is amazing sex, but if I could just never ever have to think about it ever again –_

The door slides open. Keith jumps a little despite himself. Damn Galra instincts. He stares at Shiro, who stares back, obviously a little flustered. Strangely half in half somehow, Keith thinks, looking at Shiro’s clothes and hair. Like he’s not sure whether he should be dressing up to something nice or not.

“Oh. Hey, Keith.” He cranes his neck a bit, not too subtly looking down the corridor. “Sorry, when you rang I thought you were someone else.”

“You thought I was my mom and Kolivan,” Keith says miserably. Right. It Is Happening.

Shiro chuckles, that special Shiro breed of awkward, and scratches the back of his head with his Altean arm. “Uh, yes, I thought they were supposed to be on board today and I wasn’t sure if they’d want to come have a – “

He would, Keith realizes, rather die right here and now than hear Shiro finish that sentence. He tightens both hands at his sides and charges like a hoverbike off a cliff. “Shiro. Listen. We’re already family. If you and Kolivan and my mom are happy together then I’m really happy for you. I’m happy that you’re making each other happy. I’m not going to let anything get in your way. I just need a bit of time to accept it. Okay? Just give me a bit of time and I promise I’m going to be just fine with it. Promise.”

He’s closed his eyes sometimes during that speech, isn’t sure when. He opens them to stare at Shiro imploringly. 

Shiro stares back in abject confusion.

“Keith.” He clears his throat. “I – that’s really kind of you, but we’re not – where did you get the idea that Kolivan and Kroila and I are involved?”

“ _What?_ ” Keith cycles through so many emotions at once he feels like his head will shoot off like a Zaiforge cannon. Shock. Relief. Something like disappointment. No, _relief_. No, _what?_ “But the way they look at you! And the way you talk to each other! Everyone else thought that – you took a break from training to have lunch with them – Coran said you were gonna have a _tasty time!_ ”

Shiro flushes, so hard even his scar turns bright pink. “Well, it’s not that I’m not – I mean, even you have to admit that Kolivan is very attractive, and Krolia is – but I’m not with them. I couldn’t invade like that. They can’t be interested.” He glances down with a frown.

Then he looks back up at Keith, eyes large. “Unless you’re saying… they are?”

Keith’s hands spasm at his side. Breathe. Breathe. He can do this. _Patience yields focus._

“Yeah,” he says, in his best commander voice. _Just go on go tie my family tree in a knot just be happy._ “Yeah, Shiro. They’re interested.” 

Shiro’s whole everything lights up, top to bottom. Still furiously blushing, he runs a hand through his hair, fixing it into dressed up mode. Then he reaches out his Altean hand and yanks Keith into a hug. 

“ _Thank you,_ ” he says into Keith’s shoulder. “And don’t worry, I’ll be discreet. I’d never do anything to make you uncomfortable.”

Keith makes an inarticulate noise and doesn’t move. He doesn’t move even after ten minutes or so have gone by, and Shiro’s finished fixing himself up nice and gone off to find his visitors. After another ten minutes, possibly more, it occurs to him that he is, essentially, happy.

It doesn’t stop him punching the wall.

**Author's Note:**

> And then Keith never had a family dinner ever again.


End file.
